Flowers in Spring
by Kiba-the-proud
Summary: Ed and Al continue their search for the philosopher's stone, with some help. Some RoyxEd and OCxAl. Rated PG13 to be safe.
1. Just Another Mission

Ed looked down the hill at the destroyed lab and sighed. Another person who screwed up using alchemy he thought. He glanced at his brother. "Well, we better go take a look. Then we can ask the locals what happened." Al nodded and followed his brother down the hill. Ed was on another mission, and this time Colonel Mustang hadn't had a lot of information. He had said that a group of alchemists were all suddenly killed in an explosion, and it was up to Ed to figure out if that was true, and also to find any remains of their research. So far the locals hadn't been that unwilling to talk, which was a good sign.

They reached the lab and started searching the debris. "Wow, it looks like they did a number on this place. Wonder what happened," Al said. Ed replied, "It looks like they didn't want anything left to tell us what happened here." Ed tossed aside a couple of heavily charred wooden beams, looking for anything useful, and found some differently colored ash. He dug around a little more and found part of a melted metal object over an almost untouched piece of earth. Ed blew away the ash and saw a miniature transmutation circle inscribed in the ground. "Hey, come here Al, check this out!" Al came clanking over. "Whoa, what is it?" Ed shook his head. "Dunno. It looks like someone was here during the explosion and tried to save themselves by using alchemy." "But brother, the circle's so small," said Al. Ed squinted down and replied, "Yeah, maybe a child did it." "Or someone really short," Al joked. Ed gave him a warning look before he went any farther. "Come on, let's see if anyone saw what happened."

They returned to the inn they were staying at to regroup much later that day. Al sat down at a table and looked out the window at the night sky. Ed sat across from him, leaned back and closed his eyes. "What a waste of time. We've been all over the city and we've learned a lot about what happened, but nothing about those alchemists' work." Al was more positive in his assessment. "Come on brother, at least now we know those alchemists didn't seem to hurt anyone in the town, so their work must not have been that bad. All the villagers here seem to like alchemy." Ed snorted. "Nah, maybe they were all gonna get paid off if those researchers did anything good." Al looked at his brother. "That man said all the workers were still inside when it happened, but there weren't any kids working there." He looked pensive. "So it was probably an accident…"

Ed looked up, obviously deep in thought. "I think it was an internal explosion, from the way the earth is scorched the most in the middle, so either they knew it was coming or they did it themselves. There were definitely bodies there, so whoever did it wanted everything destroyed, even the alchemists, so there wouldn't be anything left of their work. Makes my job easier, heh!" Ed laughed, then continued. "Still, I wish I knew what they were working on that was so important. No one knew, it was some big top secret deal. Probably something illegal, like human transmutation, or philosopher's stone stuff." There was a silence, until Al voiced his brother's unspoken words. "And it's all gone now." They both sighed, and headed up to their room to get some sleep.


	2. There's more to this case

Al tiptoed over to his brother's bed. It was getting pretty late in the morning and Ed still hadn't woken up. He poked the lump twisted up in the sheets. "Ed? Brother, get up!" He heard a moan emitted from the unmoving body. Al shook him a little harder. "Ed, wake up!" Ed shot upright and yelled, "No wait, those are my waffles!" and looked around, disoriented. "What… Al, why did you wake me up?" he groaned. Al chuckled. "Ed, it's almost 11! Come on, we have to get to work!" Ed pulled the sheets over his head, and Al heard a muffled "Ten more minutes." So Al picked up the bed and tipped it over. Everything on the bed, Ed included, fell into a heap on the floor. Ed leaped up screaming at Al, "What do you think you are doing! This isn't funny Al! I was trying to sleep! How can you be so heartless!" and he started chasing Al around the room. The maid walked in with a confused look on her face. "Is, um, everything okay in here?" she asked timidly. "No it's not okay, my own brother overturned a bed on my head!" yelled Ed. The maid watched the scary scene as she tiptoed out of the room, pillows flying and metal clanking the whole time.

After breakfast, the two headed out to look for more clues about the explosion. They had talked to the people who lived near the lab, but they weren't very close; they were so far away they hadn't heard or seen much during the explosion. No one even knew exactly what had been happening there, which Ed found a little odd. Either the alchemists were really secretive or the townspeople didn't want anyone to know about it. Al didn't think the locals were acting suspicious, but Ed didn't want to rule out the possibility that the whole town was in on some secret. Why would Mustang send him just to clean up an accident at some lab, unless he thought there was something bigger going on?

They stopped by the pharmacist first, hoping he'd know about the local alchemists. The two brothers entered the shop with a few minor glances, especially Al's way, and approached the counter. The pharmacist looked out from a back room. "Can I help you?" he asked. "Yeah, we're wondering what you know about the explosion that happened the other day," inquired Ed. The pharmacist looked up in thought, then replied, "Hm, I remember hearing a loud rushing noise, then the explosion, and we all rushed out to see what was happening. We didn't see much, it was over by then, but we did see the results pretty well. The police asked me to come check on the only survivor, but by the time we got there he'd already died. I'd ask the police about it, but I'm sure you boys already did. Other than that, though, I'm afraid there's not much I can do to help you." He shrugged. Ed thought for a moment. "Thanks, I guess we'll have a talk with the cops again. Come on, Al," he looked towards Al, who was crouched on the ground petting the store cat, and they both grinned.

Ed and Al headed towards the police station again. They had questioned the cops first, but they hadn't mentioned any survivors to them. When the brothers asked them again, one said, "Oh yeah, there was a survivor, but he didn't last very long. An explosion that big, I'm not surprised. We got him out of the wreckage and onto a stretcher, he was in really bad shape, we didn't think he'd last long. He didn't even make it to the hospital. Sorry kid, that's all I know," the policeman finished. "And you don't have any idea what they were researching there?" Ed asked. The cop held out his arms and shook his head. "Nope, they kept to themselves mostly, but I think they were doing something with plants or animals; they went into the woods a lot at night, we caught them but they weren't doing anything suspicious, for alchemists anyway. They were carrying a bunch of plants, so we didn't question the matter further." Now Ed was really puzzled, but he didn't see how learning that helped him any. They could have been doing anything in there, maybe building bombs out of plants, and they'd never know. He sighed. "Thanks for your time, officer," and they walked out.

Ed had pretty much given up by now, but Al suggested they take a look at the site one more time, so back they went. "Al, this is hopeless, we've already searched here, and we didn't find anything," Ed whined. They had no leads, and no one knew anything. Ed was ready to leave and report that it was just a lab accident. "Come on brother, I'm sure there's something we've missed here. I'll check the middle again," Al said. Ed sighed. "Okay Al, I'll check over there, maybe some stuff flew over by those trees." Ed trudged towards the nearby woods, still seeing nothing suspicious in the dirt. He wished he knew if what they were doing here could have caused an explosion like this. It didn't look like they caused it, but he still wasn't sure. He reached the edges of the wrecked lab and started poking around the bushes, looking for any signs of disturbance. Ed reached down into the shrubbery and pulled his hand back when he saw something shiny glinting there. Curious, he peered closer into the shadows of the undergrowth, and put his hand down again into the bush to see what it was. He felt something small, and heard a squeak, and when he pulled his hand up he leaped back in surprise at what he'd found.


	3. How convenient

Ed leaped back in shock. "AL! Get over here!" he yelped.

Al came clanking over as quickly as his metal body allowed him, ready for anything… well, almost. Neither of them was ready for what Ed had found. Ed was clutching the thing from the bushes, and it was making little noises. Al leaned in for a closer look, and so did Ed, as Ed slowly opened his hand. "What did you do that for?" they heard a tiny voice say. Sitting in the middle of Ed's palm, holding its head in its hands, was a… fairy. They had no better way to describe it. It was small, small enough to fit in Ed's hand, and it was humanoid in shape, and had large moth-like wings. Both the brothers' jaws dropped. The whatever it was let go of its head long enough to look up at them. "Oh, hello. I suppose you'll be wanting an explanation then?" Ed and Al were still too stunned to speak. Ed's mind was crossed between wanting to squish the thing in his hand and dropping it on the ground and running for it. Al had a bit more common sense; he shook his brother out of his stupor.

"Put it down, Ed. It won't run away, it could have done that by now," Al explained.

Ed hadn't been worried about that, but he put the creature down anyway. It wobbled a little when it hit the ground, but started talking almost immediately. "Well, I'll start with why you're here. You're looking into the lab explosion, correct?" Al nodded. "Right. I've been watching you, but not in a creepy way, so I know a little bit about you. You're searching for the philosopher's stone, yes?" Not waiting for a reply, the pushy little creature continued. "That's not quite what the alchemists here were working on, but it's still something that would interest you. They were working on me; I'm Ferra by the way. I'm a top secret intelligence gathering unit based on the material of humans and moths, meant to be used as a spy for the group who sponsored the project. They were going to create a species of loyal spies, but I don't know exactly what they wanted to find out. Don't bother asking me, I don't know who that is," the fairy thing said, to disappointed looks from both Elric brothers. It was fairly obvious to the brothers by now that she was female. "The alchemists who were working on me weren't bad guys, they were just under the orders of some higher ups. Anyway, I was designed to be a transmutation between moths and humans, and I was the best prototype they made. That's how I escaped, you see; I can do minor feats of alchemy. I know you saw my protective shield, that little piece of metal you unearthed the other day. I escaped from the blast because I saw it coming, but I didn't see who did it, his back was to me. I don't think he was a worker in the lab though, I'd never seen him before. Now, I know you are looking for the philosopher's stone, and that's where I come in. I was raised in a lab; I know all about alchemy, even if I can't do all of it. So, I can help you; take me with you on your search for the stone, and I will help you any way I can. What do you say?" she finished her long speech, not even a bit out of breath. Ed and Al looked at each other, trying to decide what to do, and if the creature was even telling the truth or not. They huddled up a little ways further into the forest to discuss it.

"Brother, what do you think? She sounded like she was telling the truth," Al whispered.

Ed shook his head. "I don't know, I don't trust anything that pops up suddenly and offers us information about the case and the philosopher's stone."

Al looked at his brother. "But Ed, what if she can help us? Are you going to risk losing the stone for your mistrust?"

Ed knew his brother had a point. He sighed. "Fine. But you have to take care of her."

From the bushes where they left Ferra they heard an angry yell, "Hey! I am not some pet! Oops," she said, as she realized they knew she could hear them.

Al grinned. "Come on Ed, let's at least ask her what she knows. Maybe she knows where the philosopher's stone is!"

They trudged back to the outskirts of the ruined lab. Al stuck out his metallic hand. "I'm Al, pleased to meet you," he said, and Ferra touched his hand in greeting.

"I know. I'm Ferra, as I said, but polite introductions are in order here." The two looked at Ed. He merely said, "Hey, you've been watching us, you already know our names." At a look from Al, he continued. "I'm Al." Ferra nodded towards him.

Formalities over, Ed and Al started to interrogate her. Ed squatted down, face to the ground. Al thought, he didn't have to bend far. "Okay, Ferra, tell us what you know. How can you help us?"

Ferra looked back and forth between the brothers, settling to look at Ed. "Okay, well, I am highly useful as a spy, and I can fly." She demonstrated by hovering a bit off the ground, then swooping upwards to land on Al's shoulder. "Secondly, I have a camouflage technique similar to a moth's, watch." They watched as Ferra became seemingly transparent. She moved her arms a little and they could see her better. "My body changes colors to those around me, I can't become completely invisible, and it doesn't work as well when I'm moving, as you can see." Ferra flew down to the ground again and started pacing while she spoke. "I know how to find an alchemic amplifier. It's very similar to a philosopher's stone, it could even be the same thing, and the scientists used it to make me. It involved many complicated procedures to get it just right, you see. Find their research and you may find the stone. But I don't know where it is."

Ed looked into the distance, deep in thought. "So," he mused, "there was a stone, but there's no sign of it now. It might have been destroyed in the explosion, or the ones who blew up the place took it. That means they were the ones who were after it! Alright, but that still doesn't solve who caused all this. Do you have any idea at all? This is important, Ferra." Ed looked at her with these last two sentences.

She opened her mouth to reply, but hesitated for a moment. "Ed, Al, why do you want to find the philosopher's stone?" she asked simply.

The Elrics looked at each other. Ed replied, a touch coldly, "You don't need to know that," obviously still mistrustful of her.

She sighed. "Very well, I'm sure you'll tell me eventually. I do know this: a group of three men visited the facilities often, I think to check on the progress of the project, and they had just left when the 'accident' happened. I believe one went by the name of Samneric."

Ed grinned. That's more than enough information for now, he thought. He stood up and brushed himself off. "Well Al, we'd better get to work. Gotta find this 'Samneric' guy."

He held out his hand for Ferra to climb on, and instead she flew up to Al's shoulder, an snub in retaliation for his coldness earlier. Ed started walking back towards the inn, Al and Ferra in tow.


	4. Don't call Ed short

Here's the RoyxEd you wanted, I'll explain what happened at the lab in the next chapter. Ed and Al are back at Headquarters, Ferra's safe in Al's armor, and I hope this all makes sense, since I'm basically skipping a chapter, the next one will be a flashback.

Ed was back. That meant he'd be reporting to the Colonel soon. As soon as they'd heard the clanking of Al's armor coming down the hall, the East headquarter gang all pretended to be busy. Ed entered the room and looked around. "Hey, I'm back," he said.

"Oh, hi."

"Didn't notice."

"That's nice," were the replies. They were trying to be discreet, and failing miserably. Ed gave them all a funny look and kept walking towards Roy's office. Most of them had bet that today would be the day Roy and Ed would realize their feelings for each other. It was an office pool; the rest had bet that today they would both finally kill each other. Some even thought these two events would occur on the same day. As soon as Ed entered Mustang's office, they crowded around the door to eavesdrop.

Ed knocked once then entered. "Sir, I've come to make my report," he said and sat down. He wasn't sure how much of his last mission he should tell Mustang, partly because he didn't know how much the Colonel knew and partly because he didn't know how much Mustang needed to know. Plus he wasn't a very good liar, especially when it came to Mustang.

Roy looked up from behind some paperwork on his desk and tented his hands under his chin. "Well, Ed, what do you have to report?" He almost said that as if he knows I'm about to lie to him, Ed thought. I can't tell him about Ferra, and I can't tell him anything she told me either, cause I'll need an explanation.

Ed leaned back and looked out the window, folding his hands behind his head. "Well sir, it was a bust. I couldn't find out much, not even about what was going on in that lab before it blew up. All I know is it was an internal explosion and those alchemists had been working with plants, but that's not a lot to go by, and the people there didn't know too much either." Ed looked up expectantly, hoping Mustang would let him leave it at that.

Roy watched him for a moment and smiled to himself. "Hm. Well, if that's all you could find out, then you should go back and continue your investigations. Unless you want to be fired for noncompliance of an order, because it sounds to me like you blew this case off." That wasn't what Ed had been expecting. His jaw dropped.

"Wha- Colonel, are you serious? There was nothing else there, there were no leads, no clues-" Roy cut him off.

"Ed, if you can't handle a simple case like this, then I'm afraid you're just not military material. That will be all. You're dismissed."

Ed's face was frozen in disbelief. "You- you are serious. But that's not-" He ran up to Mustang's desk and banged his right fist on it, scattering several pages and knocking objects off of it. All he wanted to do was yell at Roy, wipe that stupid smirk off his face, just once. "I told you, there's nothing else there. You're just trying to make me angry." Ed calmed visibly.

Roy gave him a steady look. His eyes glinted in, what was it, anger? "You know, Full Metal, you're not a very good liar, and I won't tolerate it when my subordinates hold back information. And if I did want to make you angry, all I'd have to do is call you short." That was when Ed's eye started to twitch. Roy's tone changed from annoyed to amused. "Do you want me to get a stool so we can continue this conversation eye to eye?" Veins started popping out of Ed's forehead in his attempts not to flip out on Roy. "No, I think we'll need a ladder so that you can climb up to the stool."

That did it. "WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SHORT YOU NEED A TELESCOPE TO SEE!" Ed clapped his hands together and transmuted Roy's desk into splinters. Roy looked stunned for a millisecond, and then he started laughing. Ed said fiercely, "I fail to see what is so funny. I could blow up your head if I wanted to."

Roy replied between laughs, "Don't be mad at the desk Ed, just because you can't see over it. Well, I guess now you finally can!" Ed was so mad now he could barely think straight. I just want to kick him, Ed thought. If we would just stop laughing-- I've never seen him this worked up.

Roy thought, I've never seen Ed this worked up. In a fit of rage Ed yelled, "Just shut up!" and in a desperate attempt to stop Roy's laughing, Ed dashed over the desk debris and planted his lips right on Roy's. They were both completely taken by surprise by Ed's action. At least I finally shut him up, was the one thought that went through Ed's mind. They didn't let go at first, still in shock. Then Ed pulled away when he comprehended what he'd done. Roy thought, was that all it took? A couple more short jokes threw him over the edge, but I never knew he'd do that. And why is my heart pounding? Roy leaned in and kissed Ed gently. Ed was even more surprised by Roy's reaction, but he kissed him back, more passionately. They both knew they enjoyed this, and wanted it, in some part of their brains, but they hadn't ever acknowledged these feelings before. This time Roy pulled away, and they looked at each other with many odd sensations and thoughts racing through their minds. They met each other's eyes and started to blush. Roy spoke into the awkward silence. "Ed, I--"

Ed cut him off. "I told you to shut up. Look what you made me do," he said softly.

Roy looked down, shook his head, and smiled. "I guess I'd better not joke about your height anymore."


End file.
